Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell, (born March 30, 1820, Yarmouth, Norfolk, Eng.—died April 25, 1878, Old Catton, Norfolk), British author of the children’s classic Black Beauty.

Sewell’s concern for the humane treatment of horses began early in life when she spent many hours driving her father to and from the station from which he left for work. She was crippled at a young age, and though she had difficulty walking, she could drive a horse-drawn carriage. Later, after reading an essay on animals by Horace Bushnell, she stated that one of her goals in writing was “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.”

Sewell’s introduction to writing began in her youth when she helped edit the works of her mother—a deeply religious, popular author of juvenile best-sellers. Sewell spent the last seven or eight years of her life—confined to her house as an invalid—writing Black Beauty. The book, a fictional autobiography of a gentle highbred horse, had a strong moral purpose and is said to have been instrumental in abolishing the cruel practice of using the checkrein.